


Ribbons and Bows

by FivePips



Series: 12+ Fics of Christmas 2018 [2]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Christmas, Christmas Shopping, Fluff, M/M, Remus is a bit of a Grinch, Sirius is Christmas cheer personified
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-24
Updated: 2018-11-24
Packaged: 2019-08-28 19:31:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,452
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16729362
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FivePips/pseuds/FivePips
Summary: Remus hates everything about Christmas shopping. Then he meets the world's cheeriest customer service person.





	Ribbons and Bows

**Author's Note:**

> I've been prompted by @starstruck4moony, @elemtee, and @siriuslygreyeyed over on tumblr. I have quite a few prompts but I'm open to more holiday ones so you can drop some ideas in the comments here or over on tumblr at @marlenemckinn in my ask box.
> 
> Prompt: Remus is out Christmas shopping and fucking tired of all the fucking tourists literally standing in groups blocking the pathways, escalators, and tube entrances. Finally reaching the customer service desk to pick up the gifts he reserved he is #OverIt. Thankfully the customer service agent still has some spirit left and some to share…

It was Christmastime in London and Remus wanted to murder everyone in sight. He could understand spree killers now. He had some sympathy for them. They probably had experienced Hogwarts Department Store the last few days before Christmas and it drove them over the edge. There were fucking tourists everywhere. They were walking slowly and taking pictures — who the fuck took pictures when they should have been Christmas shopping? People were standing around chatting in the most inconvenient places. He had to push his way through a crowd in order to get on to the sodding escalator. Sales people were trying to get him to stop in different sections to sell him items no one needed on his list. All he needed to do was pick up the gifts he reserved at the service desk but it felt like he was never going to be able to get there.

After dodging the women and men selling perfume and cologne, he finally found the service desk. The service desk with the longest fucking line on the face of the planet, that is. Remus tried not to sigh too loudly because he hated hearing people sigh in frustration. He also tried not to blame the sales people because they were just doing their job. It wasn’t their fault they had about a million people were shopping today. It didn’t stop him from feeling like he wanted to gouge himself in the eye with the closest sharp object. They were near the kitchen department, surely there were some knives hanging about.

He knew that Mary would tell him off for being so angry. She’d say it was his own fault for waiting until the last minute to pick up the gifts. Peter would ask him why he didn’t just order it online and have it shipped right to him earlier? Remus would answer with the fact that he was an idiot who waited until last minute to do everything. That was just who Remus was. But he still hated everyone around him. How were you suppose to enjoy the Christmas season when all there was to think about was buying gifts and dealing with crowds in stores?

The line slowly snaked forward. Remus took his phone out of his pocket and tried to kill time by playing a game. He inched forward bit by bit. People around him were complaining about the wait. Even though he wasn’t a fan of waiting, voicing it out loud was just rude. He kept rolling his eyes whenever he heard someone bitch and complain.

“I’ll take who’s next!” Someone said cheerily and Remus realized he was finally at the front of the line. He looked down and saw the empty spot at the counter. The person who called it wasn’t visible for the moment but he went down there anyway.

“I’m picking up an order.” Remus said, pulling up the order on his phone.

“Brilliant! What’s the last name?” The voice said in the same cheery tone as earlier as they popped up from behind the desk.

Remus took in the sight standing in front of him. He was a tall man, just a tad shorter than Remus. He had his black hair up in a messing bun, which looked to be held up by tinsel with a star sticking out the top of it. Around his pale neck was a necklace of flashing Christmas lights. He was wearing a Christmas jumper with a tree that had actual light up lights and little baubles on it. It said “Rock’n around the Christmas Tree!” in silver glitter letters. That all distracted from the fact that the man was bloody gorgeous.

“Lupin - L-U-P-I-N.” Remus shook his head, trying not to stare at the man.

“Happy Christmas, Mr Lupin!” The man grinned, showing the most perfect smile. “Okay, let’s see…”

Remus watched the man type, his nails were done in a red, green, and white pattern. He looked as happy as happy could be. Remus couldn’t understand it. The man was spending his day waiting on a bunch of arseholes. How could he be in the holiday spirit?

“I just have to grab it from the back. It will be one minute!” The man smiled at him, reaching under his desk. “Here enjoy this while you wait.” He held out a candy cane to Remus.

“Ah, thanks.” Remus took it then the customer service person went off to go get his gifts.

Remus unwrapped the candy cane, he was feeling a bit peckish. Maybe his low blood sugar was contributing to the fact that he was being rather grumpy. He thought of the man who was off to get his gifts. If he could be so happy today then surely Remus could muster up some Christmas spirit.

Sadly, that thought died when the customer service person came back without anything in his hands. He also looked a little pained and he was back there for a while. “Ah, Mr. Lupin, it seems like there was some — I believe someone may have your gifts. All I have in the back is a Lapin and I checked the bag to make sure there wasn’t a misprint.”

“Shite. This is fucking brilliant.” Remus groaned and shook his head.

“Can I see your card?” He said quickly.

“Why?”

“I’m giving you a refund.”

“Well, I still want the bloody gifts. Can’t I just go get them and then come back here or something?” Remus looked at his watch. He was supposed to be at Mary and Peter’s for a Christmas party in a few hours. He hoped he’d have time.

“I was going to give you a full refund then help you find your things. It will be quicker if I go with you.”

“Certainly you can’t give me this for free? You’ll get in trouble. It’s over three hundred pounds all together.”

“I know the bloke who owns the place, no worries.” The man waved his hand. “Now, I’ll take the card and we can get going.”

Remus handed over his credit card. This couldn’t have been right. That was far too much money for him to get back. That was pretty much all of his Christmas list. Maybe one or two of the items. “Are you sure?”

“No worries, mate.”

“What’s your name?” Remus was sick of thinking of him as the customer service person.

“Sirius, like the star not the emotion. Though it does make a good pun. You can ask my mates about that.” Sirius laughed as he clicked his mouse and looked at his computer screen.

“You’re name is—”

“Just as interesting as yours I’d say, Remus Lupin.” Sirius handed back the card. “Go wait by the china, there, and I’ll be round in just a minute. I need to get someone to come cover me.”

Remus took his card, his candy cane, and did as asked. This was the worst, he decided. What a waste of his time. He should have just done the shopping. Now he had waited in line for almost an hour just to find out his gifts were out in some poor sap’s hands.

“Let’s go!” Sirius came over pushing a cart, which was weird because they didn’t have carts at Hogwarts. It was also weird because the cart had garland wound around it.“We’ll start up here and work out way down. You don’t need anything on the top floor. You picked an Instapot, a set of china plates, and a nice vase from here.”

“Two of my best mates are getting married. They’re having a shower tonight and it’s substituting as their Christmas party. Well, it’s one in the same.”

“All that’s for them?”

“The china and the vase. The Instapot’s for my mum.” Remus explained.

Sirius smiled as he led them to the china section. Sirius looked at the list in his hand. It must have been Remus’ because he immediately went for the plates that Mary had picked. “You don’t have to do this, you know? I could have found this myself.”

“No way, someone messed up so I’m fixing it. That is the Potter way.”

“You’re really all for company loyalty.” Remus wondered what was in the kool-aid in the staff room.

“They’re family — god I sound like a creep.” Sirius gently set the plates in the cart. “I’m legitimately apart of the family. I like lending a hand on Christmas because the holidays are my favorite. The store’s always so lively.”

“So, you’re doing this by choice?” If he was apart of the Potter family, then he must have been fairly rich.

“I’m not, I’m absolutely barmy. Monty used to make James and I work here on school breaks when we were teenagers then in uni.” Sirius walked in another direction and Remus followed. “Even though I’m graduated, an adult who does their own thing, I like working here on the holidays still.”

“It really is okay for you to give me all this then?”

“Yes, Monty would be very happy. Plus, it looked like you needed some Christmas cheer.” Sirius picked up the vase.

“I look that miserable?”

“Ah huh, I was worried you were going to yell at me when I came back out there with bad news.”

“It’s not your fault, I wouldn’t have yelled at you. I would have just went on to angrily shopped.” Remus snickered.

“Put a smile on your face, Remus — can I call you Moony? It’s just, your name and that tattoo,” Sirius gestured to Remus’ arm. His jumper’s sleeve was pushed up to show his phases of the moon tattoo.

“Ha, sure, I guess?”

“See, a smile, now eat your candy cane and we’ll get the rest of these gifts. It will be nice and quick.”

Sirius wasn’t lying when he said it was going to be quick. Sirius took him through four levels of the department store so fast Remus was nearly in shock. He took Remus through secret tunnels to navigate around the crowds. He knew exactly where every single item was. Sirius also made pleasant conversation. He also made fun of customers quietly to Remus.

“You’re wicked.” Sirius said.

“You’re the one making fun of people.”

“You’re the one that keeps laughing about it.” Sirius said as they got to the bottom level in the staff elevator. “You’ve all your gifts now.”

“I do? That was fast.” Remus said as they made their way to the service floor. “Thanks, I need to get back to wrap these. I think I have just enough time.”

“We have gift wrapping here.”

“It’s more money—”

“Nope, I’ll do it.” Sirius shook his head. “You can skip the line and I’ll be the one to help. You won’t pay a thing.”

“Sirius, I can’t let you do anything more.”

“You can because I’m doing it anyway. It’s a part of being in the Christmas spirit.” Sirius took off to the gift wrapping station.

Remus followed after him, bypassing all the customers waiting. He heard a few angry outcries but he didn’t really care. “I don’t think I can thank you enough.”

“You don’t have to, I’m just doing my job.”

“Is there someone I can call? I know you don’t work here but — I don’t know, I’d love to let Monty know how brilliant you are.”

Sirius blushed, reaching for a pen and a scrap of paper. “Yeah, here you go. Call that number. I don’t know if it will do much.”

“I can’t exactly tip you or anything since I have no cash on me. This is probably the best I can do.” Remus said. He wouldn’t mind taking Sirius out dinner to repay him but that seemed a bit forward. Sirius was just being nice because it was his job. Well, it was his part-time job or whatever. It wasn’t as if he was hitting on him.

“Okay, let’s get these wrapped then you can be on time to your party.”

***

The next day, Remus woke up feeling slightly hungover from the wedding shower/Christmas party that Mary and Peter held. He went to the kitchen for coffee to find the paper with Sirius’ writing and the phone number on it. Remus turned on his coffee maker and picked up the paper. Now was a good time to call the number, he assumed. He doubted there would be much of a wait time on a Saturday morning. He was almost tempted to go back to Hogwarts to see the cute part time customer service agent.

The phone rang twice and a sleepy voice answered, “Hello.”

Remus made a face, “Ah, sorry, I think I have the wrong number.”

“Remus?”

“Sirius?” Remus laughed. “You — this is your number, isn’t it?”

“I feel like it’s probably a bit not good that I did this but I didn’t know how else to get to talk to you again. Is this okay? I thought, maybe you were flirting with me but—”

“I was but I didn’t want to be creepy.” Remus scoffed.

“Even though I did this completely ridiculous thing, would you maybe want to go ice skating with me tonight?”

“Really?”

“Yes, a nice proper Christmas date.”

“Are you going to wear a garland and a star in your hair?”

“Did you like that?” Sirius asked with a little chuckle.

“It was rather adorable.”

“I was thinking not doing the hair and ugly sweater because I was hoping to show you I’m not completely barmy and I have a wonderful fashion sense.”

“Wear whatever you want.” Remus smiled. “What time and when?”

***

So, that was how Remus found himself at Hyde Park surrounded by tourist only a few days before Christmas. He would have been annoyed, just as he was at the store but Sirius was there waiting. He was not wearing garland and a star in his hair. Instead he was in a nice coat with dark jeans and red mittens.

“I’m glad you braved the crowd.” Sirius said as they skated around the rink.

“Well, I had a nice incentive.” Remus shrugged. “It is nice, the lights and everything.”

“I’m glad you don’t totally hate the holiday, I don’t think I’d be asking you on another date.”

“Another date?” Remus chuckled.

“What are you doing Boxing Day?”

“I don’t think that I have any plans.”

“We’ll have to do something Christmasy then. I’m not sure what but I’ll find a thing for us to do.” Sirius smiled.

“I do rather like the holiday, I just generally hate people.”

“You don’t hate me.”

“No, I think I like you well enough for that second date.”

“Happy Christmas to me then.” Sirius leaned in and pecked him on the cheek.

Happy Christmas, indeed.


End file.
